One of the most intriguing cars at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach is a 1956 Pontiac that pays stylistic homage to NASCAR Hall of Fame member Cotton Owens. (Photo: Tom Jensen)

For old-school NASCAR fans, there are some cool connections at the 12th Annual Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Collector Car Auction.

One of the most intriguing is a 1956 Pontiac that pays stylistic homage to NASCAR Hall of Fame member Cotton Owens. It’s fitting timing, given that Owens was from South Carolina and the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series is racing at Darlington Raceway this weekend.

Nico Rosberg topped the opening day of testing at Bahrain just two days after his second place finish here. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

After a break of just one day the Formula 1 teams were back in action in Bahrain for the start of the first of four two-day in-season tests.

All the teams ran their regular race drivers today with the exceptions of Sauber, who used Sergey Sirotkin, and Caterham, who ran Robin Frijns. All teams have to devote one of their eight days to Pirelli, and today it was the turn of Caterham. For everyone else it was a valuable chance to catch their breath between races, try new parts, and work on setups.

Marc Marquez led teammate Dani Pedrosa home to a 1-2 finish at the 2013 Grand Prix of the Americas. (Photo: Christian Pondella/Getty Images)

MotoGP will make its second annual visit to the modern Circuit of the Americas (COTA) racetrack this weekend, with the Repsol Honda Team having the bikes to beat.

Teammates Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa are riding high out of Qatar having finished with Marquez in first and Pedrosa in third. The duo scored a 1-2 finish for the team at COTA in 2013, while some of the other riders weren’t as fortunate.

Bernie Ecclestone has repeated his opposition to the current F1 rules, and hinted that the 100 kgs (220 lbs) fuel allowance could be increased.

Although the theory is that more fuel means that teams might run higher revs, which would improve the sound – they are running nowhere near the 15,000 rpm limit – there is clearly a bigger picture with regard to the relative fuel efficiency of the three engines.